Pennsylvania budget scorecard

Here's what happened, what's ahead in the debate over the 2011-12 state budget.

June 24, 2011|By John L. Micek, CALL HARRISBURG BUREAU

HARRISBURG — For those of you playing along at home, here's the latest in the deliberations over the 2011-2012 state budget. The new fiscal year starts on June 30.

— The latest developments in the emerging state budget:

•Legislative leaders and the Corbett administration remain mum on many specifics of the $27.15 billion spending plan. But several education components emerged Friday.

The tentative agreement includes $25 million in new funding for state reimbursements to charter schools, likely to be split among the state's eight poorest school districts. Under that framework, Allentown schools would receive $3 million to $4 million.

It also appears $100 million for Accountability Block Grants will be preserved, perhaps to underwrite after-school tutoring, full-day kindergarten and other initiatives. It was eliminated under Gov. Tom Corbett's original budget proposal.

Allentown Superintendent Gerald Zahorchak said Friday he is pleased the Legislature is looking to reinstate some of the money the district was slated to lose. He put the district's loss at $10 million to $12 million, down from a projected $15.5 million under Corbett's original budget plan.

"That is heartening news inside the context of the original proposal that was very, very lopsided against the most economically struggling school districts," Zahorchak said.

•Legislative Democrats continue their calls for Republicans to dip into a year-end surplus of about $700 million to restore programs set for the budget knife. At least a portion is in play, but Republicans have resisted calls to dip deeper, saying that the state faces too many costs and that economic conditions are still uncertain.

"There's a good argument for not spending," administration Budget Secretary Charles Zogby said. "If we have more revenue for [fiscal] 2012-2013, that's a better position than we've been in for the last eight years."

•A closed-door House Republican caucus on proposals to impose a severance tax or impact fee on Marcellus Shale natural gas drillers ended Friday with no clear favorite emerging. Some GOP rank-and-filers oppose any effort to impose a tax or fee, while others echoed the Corbett administration's position of deciding only after a study commission reports next month.

•The House and Senate are scheduled to work this weekend. The House is slated to take up a bill Sunday changing the way damages are parceled out in civil lawsuits. The Senate is expected to start moving budget bills through committee with votes coming on Monday.

Still on lawmakers' plates are bills on the Corbett administration's must-have list, including a proposal that would require, with only limited exceptions, school districts to obtain voter approval before raising taxes beyond the rate of inflation and a possible vote on a school-choice bill.